How participation has become a hegemonic discursive resource: Towards an interpretivist research agenda

Several studies have shown that the impact of participatory practices in policymaking is substantially weak, but that these practices continue to spread. Why are participatory practices spreading despite their weak impact on public policies? The hypothesis is that 'participation' is a new hegemonic référentiel, contributing to the stabilization of moderate neoliberalist policies through the framing of two main algorithms: technical and political. The former regards how participation should be developed and affirms the primacy of the technicalization of participation; the latter considers where participation should be developed and affirms the primacy of local democracy. The technical algorithm favors a de-politicization of the stakes, a weakening of the conflict, and a shared responsibility felt by the social actors involved. The political algorithm favors an apparent compensation for a deficit in local democracy, a deflection of the conflict, and a detachment of the problem of local democracy from trans-national economic strategies. © 2011 Institute of Local Government Studies, University of Birmingham.